


Coffeeshop Blues

by maytenance



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Coming of Age, F/F, Queer Themes, Romance, Slice of Life, Useless Lesbians
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-16
Updated: 2018-08-17
Packaged: 2019-06-28 09:56:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15704898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maytenance/pseuds/maytenance
Summary: Chloe learns the name of the mysteriously adorkable auburn haired book-worm.





	1. My Strange Addiction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe learns the name of the mysteriously adorkable auburn haired book-worm.

         She had sat down like always. The only thing as consistent as her comings and goings was her order, “An americano with a shot of vanilla, please.” Said with that sweet and angelic voice that I had grown routinely accustomed to hearing; a routine, I must admit, that I slowly began to adore.

         Brushing across a streak from her auburn hair she gave me a small smile and a wave. Shit, she saw me looking. I felt a small flush of red spread across my face. I tried to focus on cleaning the always-seemingly-broken espresso machine. Rachel teased at me, “C’mon punk ass, you cannot possibly tell me that after all you’ve dealt with you’re afraid of a little wave from little miss bookworm here.” It was true, which made me feel all the more stupid because of it. She makes me feel _weird_. I don’t like it… well actually sort of. It’s confusing.

         Pictures. The first time I had noticed it was in fall a few months back. She was organizing a collection of photos on her usual table. A series of photos of trees in varying states of nudity. It was fascinatingly adorable to watch as she put so much care into the exact placement of each and every photo. Today I watched as she organized a stack of portraits of seemingly random people while taking quick breaks to drink her overly-roasted, and expensive, americano.

         The ashen taste of smoke filled my mouth as I went on break. It was a cool wintery day full of crisp air that caressed like a soft blanket of ice. The contrast of the warm smoke and cold air put me at ease. Almost as much as watching an auburn-haired nerd continually rearrange photos and wince as she tried to drink coffee that was only to show how hip and angsty she was. I checked my phone and put out my cigarette. Closing time.

         “Everybody get out!” I screamed while nearly kicking the back-door in. Scaring many of the customers into a frenzied rush of grabbing bags and closing laptops. The speed at which the shop emptied rivaled that of the moldy biscuit wars of prior months. Booknerd must’ve left sometime earlier in the day as I didn’t see her cute frenzied panicky self, running out the door. ‘Shame.

         Rachel must’ve noticed my disappointment as she said to me, “She left while you were taking your break. But she left her receipt for her coffee on the table,” I rolled my eyes, “her name is Max.” I smiled and chuckled in response, “God damn, you nosey bitch.” She hit my arm and gave me a smirked two-fingered salute on the way out the door, “See you Monday loser. By the way, before I forget, I might have not done the dishes. Bye!” She ran out the door before I could get another word in. “Bitch.” I cursed under my breath. It was going to be a long night.

            By the time I got home it was pitch-dark and the oh-so-familiar cold of the bay had chilled me into a blue icicle. I hopped into the shower and ended up falling asleep to the rhythmic calm of running water. I woke-up to the unpleasant sensation of ice-cold water and rough wrinkled fingers. I did my best to dry off and snuck my way into the room-temperature covers of my small single-bed. As I drifted off to sleep I remembered the awkward wave of Max. Just another day in paradise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone. This is mostly just me trying to get a familiarity of the characters. I will be subsequently releasing more and more content as I get more familiar with the characters in my head AU. If you have any comments or concerns feel free to comment / post at the bottom of this! (Feel free to also post if you'd like more. That always makes me happy.)
> 
> Thank you so much for reading.
> 
> \- Maytenance.


	2. Mon rêve bleu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe sees a mysterious deer in the forest and makes unexpected plans.

Waking up is so incredibly exhausting, it seems counter intuitive. Yawning and all the stupid shit people do when they’re thrust from their peaceful slumber into the world of minimum wage coffee shops. I’m a little surprised that I didn’t wake up from my alarm. Wait, shit. My phone was dead, I forgot to plug it in last night. I rushed to put some pants on and threw on a random, probably stained, gray tank-top. It wasn’t pretty but it got the job done. I barely had time to brush my teeth before I ran out the door to get to Café de la Femme Bleu, the world’s shittiest coffee shop.

I burst into the door as per usual and give customers flashbacks to the Friday prior, I feel an overall shudder of fear from the denizens of my domain. I sneak around to Rachel and give her my best customer voice, “Uhm miss? Sorry if this is rude but those earings look _absolutely dreadful_ on you.” She turns around angry looking like she was going to kill someone but relaxes into a weak chortle after realizing she had been duped. Punching me in the arm she asks, “Late, again? C’mon blue this is starting to get old. Did you have another dream relating to your infatuation with shorty, the angsty photographer?” My faced turned an awful red and I went to bussing the tables as she laughed towards my general vicinity.

After doing a few of the tables and generally calming down, Rachel and I worked into the rhythm of making meaningless banter in between bussing, cleaning, and serving orders. “He told me I smelt nice after he bumped into me, how fucking weird is that,” I said talking about a creepster I met named Nathan, “I told him to fuck off and leave me alone.” Rachel blinked slowly, “He didn’t happen to be wearing some fancy clothing and have brown hair, right?” She asked with a deadpan. “Actually, now that I think about it, it did have a rather brown glow to it and he was wearing a blueish blazer. Why?” I responded. She folded her hands together and looked at me in the eyes for an uncomfortable several seconds before responding, “You just told Nathan Prescott, the owner of what amounts to half of Arcadia Bay to quote unquote, ‘fuck off.’ He is going to make your life a living hell.” I sat stunned for a minute, “I’d like to see him try.” On that note I walked to the front-counter and stole one of the poppy seed muffins. “I’m taking my break.” I shouted.

It was a quiet afternoon in the bay. The sun was poking out just barely above the rolling fog. It smelt like fresh drew and I was loving every second of it. I took another drag off my cigarette before I noticed something in the corner of my eye. It seemed like it was a deer. By the time I turned towards it, it had disappeared into the brush of a path. Checking the time, I decided to follow it, “Can’t have gone too far.” I thought. The path was a mixed gravel dirt path and every step I took would make a resounding _crunch_. It would’ve been more relaxing had I not had such a definitive goal in mind; I don’t know why, but, it felt like I _needed_ to find that deer. That was when I saw her, a figure of a girl crouched over near a log and a pile of leaves. She was crying. I slowly walked towards her. Taking a seat near her I said quietly, “Hey, my name’s Chloe.” She turned towards me with a look of fear and emptiness, “Why a-are you here.” She stuttered out. I waved my hand in the air as a form of dismissal, “I was just wandering. I’m a wanderer.” We sat together in silence for a few minutes before I broke the quiet. “Do you want a cigarette.” I started pulling one out of my sweatpants pocket until she stopped me, “I’ve never done that before, I’m from a pretty strict theological household.” I looked at her, “And why is that stopping you now?” She bit her lip, eyeing the cigarette she nodded slowly, “Sure, I guess.” I started it and took a few drags before passing it to her, “Here. It’ll be a little harsh the first few draws but it’ll help with the anxiety.” She coughed up half a lung at first but settled in to a steady rhythm before long. We sat in the silence of our own little sphere of relaxation, it was nice. I checked the time. Crap.

“I’m on a break from work, I’ve gone a little over but it’s about time that I start walking back. Would you care to join me? I can treat you to a coffee.” She looked like she was considering it before shaking her head, “I don’t think so, but, you’ve been so nice to me. I hope I see you around again okay?” I smiled and turned around, “Of course you will.” By the time I got back all I really had to do was work on cleaning the dishes and making idle prattle with Rachel. It was a little saddening that I hadn’t seen Max but I’d probably see her tomorrow anyway. That was until a knock came at the window while I was closing up, speak of the devil. “We’re closed.” I shouted. A halfhearted attempt to avoid any interaction as not to let the she-devil into my _feelings._ “I think I left some photos here, can you let me in? Please?” Max said with that sickly-sweet voice of hers. “Fine! But don’t do anything weird. I’ve dealt with enough of that today.” I said as I unlocked the door.

Her hand brushed pass my shoulder as she was pushing the door closed and I felt butterflies around me. Why am I like this? I’m so stupid. I was blushing and she hadn’t even said anything to me yet. “So, what exactly are we looking for here shortstop?” I asked attempting to gain control of the situation. “Just some photos of trees, I think I left them here when I left in a rush last night. You’re rather scary you know?” I smirked, “Yeah. I know. Let’s get us started on looking for those photos. Shall we?” Us? We? Why am I so stupid? We searched for roughly 20 minutes and there was no trace of any photos. “Sorry kid, I don’t think they’re here.” I said disappointedly. She looked despondent. “I’m really sorry, I can keep looking and let you know if I fin-“ I stopped, noticing something on the top of a dusty shelf. “Wait a minute, let me check something out.” I felt her eyes follow me as I walked towards the decrepit dusty shelf. Standing on my toes was all it took to know that I had found what we were looking for. “Success!” I shouted. Grabbing the photos, I walked over to a table and set them down all the while motioning for Max to follow. “Here’s your weird photos of trees, although I’m not sure how they got all the way up there.” I chuckled, happy that we had found what she was looking for.

Grabbing them she smiled, “Thank you. She rifled through them like they were a deck of playing cards. Scrunching up her eye brows at one photo in particular. “What?” I asked, now curious due to _minutes_ of investment. “I don’t remember taking this photo is all.” She said while passing it to me. It was a photo of a brown deer with gorgeous cerulean blue butterflies surrounding it. The photo was stunning. “This photo is absolutely gorgeous, how the hell do you not remember taking it?” I blurted out. She shrugged and put them away in the bag in the corner she set down when she walked in. “Listen I gotta get going, thank you for helping me find my photos.” She started walking out but turned around just before leaving. “We should hangout sometime, do you want to trade numbers.” I felt a little jump in my chest. “Yes! I mean, uh, sure. Yeah.” Damnit, why do I keep doing this. I internally sighed. She gave me her number and left. My phone buzzed shortly after.

        M: Hey it’s Max :^D

        C: hi max! my name is chloe btw

        C: im glad we were able to find your photos

I put my phone in my pocket and closed up. I’m glad I charged it while I was on break. I got home and nearly immediately crawled into bed after eating some generic-name-brand-cereal-o’s. Popping my phone’s charger in me and Max texted a bit before going to sleep.

         M: Do you want to hangout tomorrow?

         C: cant i have work

         M: I know but what about after? We could a movie.

         C: there are never any new movies in arcadia

         C: saving private ryan has been playing in the theatre for over a decade

         M: But do you wanna see it? >>>>>:D?

         C: you know what sure

         M: Awesome sauce. I’ll pick you up after work?

         C: sure thing, ill see you tomorrow, later kiddo

         M: I’m not a kid! D:<

I smiled as I put my phone down. I was excited.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone it's me your friend neighborhood Maytenance again. I really enjoyed putting this chapter together and I hope you enjoy reading it! If you did feel free to let me know. It makes me feel good and helps inflate my ego. >:D Happy Friday everyone.
> 
> \- Maytenance <3


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